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Bellator crosses 100,000 buy mark for inaugural pay-per-view effort

Whether or not Viacom made a profit is unclear, but Bellator 120 exceeded most predictions about what buy rate it would pull on the challenging waters of pay-per-view.

Sources close to MMA Fighting confirm Bellator 120 has earned over 100,000 buys, and could earn more, although any additional buys are likely to be a very marginal amount as the majority of participating cable operators have reported their results. Sherdog.com was the first to report the news.

"My excitement with this event is based on it having been entertaining and a great 'event'," Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney told MMA Fighting. "And, it's the fan and media response to what we created a couple Saturday's back that's kept that excitement going. I won't be discussing specific PPV buy rates, but what I can say is that with one of our main events falling out just seven days before our first PPV, a six figure plus buy rate is a good starting point. But, it's just that, a starting point. My focus is to continue working with our partners at Spike to create the type of big event experience that we created on the 17th."

While no official numbers are made public as pay-per-view buy rates are proprietary information, it is widely accepted the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the market leader in mixed martial arts for success in pay-per-view. Few MMA organizations have attempted a launch into pay-per-view to date. Only the UFC and the short-lived Affliction promotion ever reportedly earned more than 100,000 for a single event. The UFC's baseline for sales, however, is closer to 150,000 with the ceiling having reached as high as 1.6 million for UFC 100 in July of 2009 (for a fuller glimpse into what's reported about UFC pay-per-view buy rates, go here).

Bellator 120 took place on May 17 at the Landers Center in Southaven, Mississippi. The card featured former UFC fighter Tito Ortiz and was headlined by a light heavyweight bout between Quinton Jackson and Muhammed Lawal. Jackson won the contest via unanimous decision.Bellator crosses 100,000 buy mark for inaugural pay-per-view effort

Me neither I definitely trust Meltzer's report of 65k over an unnamed source to sherdog.com

The article is linked to mmafighting.com and clearly states, "Sources close to MMA Fighting confirm Bellator 120 has earned over 100,000 buys, and could earn more, although any additional buys are likely to be a very marginal amount as the majority of participating cable operators have reported their results."

Originally Posted by TheKidInside

I trust Meltzer way less since he's essentially a UFC reporter. Also, it's not a failure as TJ vs Barao probably did 200k MAX lol

I agree.

Also, it is not a failure as Bellator stated up front they only needed 50k to break even.

I trust Meltzer way less since he's essentially a UFC reporter. Also, it's not a failure as TJ vs Barao probably did 200k MAX lol

I disagree with your "he's essentially a UFC reporter" comment, Dave was very positive about the BFC PPV and has an excellent reputation with incredible insight when it comes to the PPV market, since his primary bread and butter is pro wrestling and he's spent over two decades focusing a lot on the PPV business in general. He said the first words he was hearing were around 70k, he's not some UFC errand boy like Arial, he's highly critical of the UFC when they're off and I'd recommend checking out his radio show, as he's very unbiased. If anything, he's closely aligned with the UFC because he was one of the first people to seriously cover MMA in general and has a good reputation.

The article is linked to mmafighting.com and clearly states, "Sources close to MMA Fighting confirm Bellator 120 has earned over 100,000 buys, and could earn more, although any additional buys are likely to be a very marginal amount as the majority of participating cable operators have reported their results."

I agree.

Also, it is not a failure as Bellator stated up front they only needed 50k to break even.

It also says sherdog is who reported it. And either way the source is unnamed. As for the ppv average for the UFC, that is incredibly wrong. I'm not sure where they got that number from the UFC hasn't been as low 150k for a card in years.

It also says sherdog is who reported it. And either way the source is unnamed. As for the ppv average for the UFC, that is incredibly wrong. I'm not sure where they got that number from the UFC hasn't been as low 150k for a card in years.

I think IceCold is right, though I get the confusion, Cat. They say:

The UFC's baseline for sales, however, is closer to 150,000

which I didn't understand exactly either. So I looked at the link they reference and it seems to show 150 (actually 140) as the minimum not average. So the UFC tramples Bellator today. But I don't think that's unexpected or a bad sign. It's a much smaller promotion who did something that made them money and got them more attention.

Yeah, the 150k figure was definitely the lowest, and not the average. If it were the average, that would imply that they have had many below 150k but if that were the case, I sincerely doubt that UFC would be in the position that it's in today.